The present disclosure relates to a toner, an image forming apparatus, and an image forming method.
According to electrophotography, a surface of an electrophotographic photosensitive member (also referred to below as a photosensitive member) as an image bearing member is charged and then exposed to light to form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member. Subsequently, the electrostatic latent image is developed into a toner image with developer and the toner image is transferred to a transfer target (specific examples include an intermediate transfer belt and a recording medium). A substance such as a toner component remains on the surface of the photosensitive member after transfer of the toner image. The remaining substance (also referred to below as a residue) is accordingly removed for example through friction between the surface of the photosensitive member and a cleaning member such as a cleaning blade that is in pressure contact with the surface of the photosensitive member.
The cleaning member is made from an elastic material such as rubber. Therefore, an edge of the cleaning member may warp when friction force with the surface of the photosensitive member (surface of a photosensitive layer) is strong in residue removal. In particular, warping of the cleaning member tends to be caused in a situation using a photosensitive member including at the surface layer portion thereof a photosensitive layer containing amorphous silicon (also referred to below as an amorphous silicon photosensitive member). Presumably, the photosensitive layer of the amorphous silicon photosensitive member is hard to increase friction force between the cleaning member and the surface of the photosensitive layer.
When the cleaning member warps, power to remove a residue on the surface of the photosensitive member (cleaning ability) may impair. When cleaning ability of the cleaning member impairs, an image defect (for example, an image void) may be caused due to the presence of a residue that has not been removed in image formation.
A technique of adding a lubricant to a toner has been studied in order to inhibit warping of the cleaning member. For example, a toner including fatty acid metal salt particles as a lubricant has been studied. With use of the toner, lubrication of the fatty acid metal salt particles can decrease friction force between the cleaning member and the surface of the photosensitive member, resulting in inhibition of warping of the cleaning member.